The present disclosure relates to heat exchangers. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a heat exchanger assembly for an environmental control system (“ECS”) of an aircraft.
The ECS, including the ram air fan assembly, aboard an aircraft provides conditioned air to an aircraft cabin. Conditioned air is air at a desired temperature, pressure, and humidity for aircraft passenger comfort. Compressing ambient air at flight altitude heats the resulting pressurized air sufficiently that it must be cooled, even if the ambient air temperature is very low. Thus, under most conditions, heat must be removed from air by the ECS before the air is delivered to the aircraft cabin. As heat is removed from the air, it is dissipated by the ECS into a separate stream of air that flows into the ECS, across heat exchangers in the ECS, and out of the aircraft, carrying the excess heat with it. Under conditions where the aircraft is moving fast enough, the pressure of air ramming into the aircraft is sufficient to move enough air through the ECS and over the heat exchangers to remove the excess heat.
In existing heat exchanger assemblies with more than one heat exchanger, the individual heat exchanger circuits are sometimes separable and bolted together. Intermediate flanges and seals between adjacent heat exchangers are bulky, heavy, and provide increased chance of leakage or failure of the intermediate flanges and seals. Additionally, discontinuous heat transfer fins across the assembly can cause particulates to become trapped between adjacent heat exchangers.